Browse content similar to 14/02/2017. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Hello and welcome to One Hundred Days. | :00:07. | :00:08. | |
Just three weeks into the new US administration and there is already | :00:09. | :00:12. | |
The National Security Adviser Mike Flynn did speak to the Russian | :00:13. | :00:18. | |
And later withheld that information from the Vice President. | :00:19. | :00:28. | |
The evolving and eroding the level of trust as a result of this | :00:29. | :00:33. | |
situation and a series of other questionable instances is what led | :00:34. | :00:37. | |
the president to ask for general Flynn's resignation. | :00:38. | :00:41. | |
the White House last month that General Flynn had not told | :00:42. | :00:46. | |
Why did the president sit on that information for three weeks? | :00:47. | :00:50. | |
Democrats are demanding an investigation into | :00:51. | :00:52. | |
President Trump's team and their contacts with Russia. | :00:53. | :00:55. | |
We want to know, by what authority did General Flynn have these | :00:56. | :00:59. | |
conversations and who did he report to after that? | :01:00. | :01:03. | |
It's a story that points to confusion at the top. | :01:04. | :01:06. | |
On Flynn, the White House advisor Kellyanne Conway gave us one story, | :01:07. | :01:09. | |
So who really does speak for the President? | :01:10. | :01:15. | |
And the Israeli Prime Minister arriving in Washington to start | :01:16. | :01:17. | |
a new relationship with the White House. | :01:18. | :01:19. | |
Iran, Hezbollah, Syria and settlements. | :01:20. | :01:23. | |
This story begins at the end of December. | :01:24. | :01:41. | |
President Obama had just imposed new sanctions on Russia | :01:42. | :01:44. | |
in retaliation for Moscow hacking the election. | :01:45. | :01:46. | |
Donald Trump's senior foreign policy advisor, General Mike Flynn, | :01:47. | :01:49. | |
hopped on the phone with Russia's ambassador to discuss the penalty. | :01:50. | :01:52. | |
Now US law bars any private citizen from conducting foreign policy. | :01:53. | :01:56. | |
But the greater mistake was to mislead the Vice President. | :01:57. | :01:59. | |
The National Security Advisor told Mike Pence that sanctions never | :02:00. | :02:02. | |
came up in his calls with the Russian Ambassador. | :02:03. | :02:09. | |
The conversation had been bugged by US intelligence, disproving | :02:10. | :02:13. | |
In his resignation letter, Flynn sai, "Unfortunately, | :02:14. | :02:18. | |
"because of the fast pace of events, I inadvertently briefed | :02:19. | :02:21. | |
"the Vice President Elect and others with incomplete information | :02:22. | :02:24. | |
"regarding my phone calls with the Russian Ambassador." | :02:25. | :02:33. | |
Not telling the truth exposed the President's highest security | :02:34. | :02:35. | |
advisor to potential blackmail by the Russians. | :02:36. | :02:37. | |
And the Justice Department said they warned the White House | :02:38. | :02:39. | |
about Flynn's problem back in January. | :02:40. | :02:41. | |
Well, in the last few minutes, the White House press | :02:42. | :02:43. | |
secretary Sean Spicer has been taking questions. | :02:44. | :02:51. | |
Do the president instructed to talk about sanctions? Absolutely not. | :02:52. | :03:04. | |
The president had no problem with him attracting -- acting in | :03:05. | :03:14. | |
accordance with his job. As has been noted, that is what the National | :03:15. | :03:19. | |
Security Adviser does, they begin the process of preparing their | :03:20. | :03:23. | |
incoming job by talking to counterparts and the blue previously | :03:24. | :03:26. | |
held the job. If he had not done that, there would be questions as to | :03:27. | :03:30. | |
its proper preparation on day one. The issue is not what he discussed, | :03:31. | :03:35. | |
there has been a legal review of that and there is no issue. The | :03:36. | :03:39. | |
issue isn't whether or not he failed to properly inform the vice | :03:40. | :03:42. | |
president or not be honest with him or not remember it. That is the | :03:43. | :03:46. | |
issue. When he lost trust with the president, that is where he asked | :03:47. | :03:48. | |
for and received his resignation. Well, there is definitely a lot | :03:49. | :03:51. | |
of damage control taking place Yes, but the administration may be | :03:52. | :03:56. | |
better off without General Flynn - he's been a lightning rod | :03:57. | :04:00. | |
for a while now. I've been taking a look at the road | :04:01. | :04:03. | |
leading up to this resignation. A 25 in the first casualty of a | :04:04. | :04:14. | |
trump White House scandal. Michael Flynn, a retired US Army three star | :04:15. | :04:17. | |
general is no stranger to controversy. In 2040, president | :04:18. | :04:21. | |
Obama fired him because of its extreme views on Islam. Flynn said | :04:22. | :04:26. | |
it is rational for Americans to fear Muslims and called the Islamic world | :04:27. | :04:30. | |
and epic failure. Before the election, the general made his views | :04:31. | :04:35. | |
clear to me. Radical Islamism is like communism or Nazism. We are | :04:36. | :04:40. | |
facing it right now, it is for real and we have seen it expand around | :04:41. | :04:45. | |
the globe. He was one of the first and only senior national security | :04:46. | :04:49. | |
figures to endorse Donald Trump. It earned him a lot of loyalty. Former | :04:50. | :04:55. | |
director of the defence intelligence agency, Michael Flynn. The | :04:56. | :04:58. | |
Republican national convention, Flynn gave one of the most | :04:59. | :05:01. | |
red-blooded speeches, criticising Hillary Clinton. Yes, that is right. | :05:02. | :05:11. | |
Walk her off. If I did a tenth of what she did, I would be in jail | :05:12. | :05:18. | |
today. He hosted conspiracy theories on social media and compared Clinton | :05:19. | :05:23. | |
to be Al-Qaeda militants in Iraq and Afghanistan. But what finally pushed | :05:24. | :05:26. | |
him out what is too cosy relationship with Russia. General | :05:27. | :05:31. | |
Flynn lied about his pre-inauguration discussions with | :05:32. | :05:35. | |
the Russian ambassador. And then he put the vice president in the | :05:36. | :05:38. | |
awkward position of also lying on national television. Never a great | :05:39. | :05:42. | |
way to protect your job. The story of Michael Flynn suggests confusion | :05:43. | :05:46. | |
in the White House. Over the weekend, the president said he knew | :05:47. | :05:51. | |
nothing about it. His top policy adviser declined to say the boss | :05:52. | :05:54. | |
still backed Flynn and then hours before he was kicked out, trump | :05:55. | :05:58. | |
councillor Kellyanne Conway said this... He does it enjoyed a full | :05:59. | :06:14. | |
confidence of this President's curious relationship with Russia and | :06:15. | :06:16. | |
what it means for America. Our North America editor | :06:17. | :06:18. | |
Jon Sopel is here. It is about personnel I want general | :06:19. | :06:26. | |
Flynn said to the vice president. The story of loyalty from the | :06:27. | :06:31. | |
president himself. Do you agree it is a style America was matter | :06:32. | :06:33. | |
relationship with Russia and the White House relationship with | :06:34. | :06:34. | |
Russia? One of the most striking things for | :06:35. | :06:47. | |
me, is not what happened to Mike Flynn, it is the attempt to recast | :06:48. | :06:53. | |
what Donald Trump's stance is toward Russia. Sean Spicer says no one has | :06:54. | :06:57. | |
been tougher toward Russia. We have been really tough and yes, we want | :06:58. | :07:02. | |
to have better relations below what we have done. Maybe I've not been | :07:03. | :07:07. | |
paying attention and sometimes in classes, as a school boy I was | :07:08. | :07:13. | |
guilty of that, but I can't help thinking of what? Sorry? Really? | :07:14. | :07:18. | |
Have I missed all of this? And I think there was a recognition of so | :07:19. | :07:22. | |
much of what Trump is doing is playing well with his pace, Mexico, | :07:23. | :07:28. | |
the border, the travel ban, all going down grey. But cosying up to | :07:29. | :07:34. | |
Russia? I suddenly felt the reverse thrust button being appalled at the | :07:35. | :07:37. | |
White House today to recast our relationship. We do not know | :07:38. | :07:42. | |
behind-the-scenes what has been going on between Donald Trump and | :07:43. | :07:46. | |
the Russians. But let me ask you about the personnel issue and the | :07:47. | :07:50. | |
question of judgment. Michael Flynn, and I've heard this on countless | :07:51. | :07:55. | |
members of the national security advisers, had extreme views about | :07:56. | :07:58. | |
Islam, was too friendly with the Russians are not very competent | :07:59. | :08:02. | |
either. Was it a good idea for president Trump to bring him in and | :08:03. | :08:05. | |
then keep him on the three weeks after the Justice Department said he | :08:06. | :08:09. | |
could be blackmail by the Russians? Like you, I remember going to | :08:10. | :08:14. | |
reception and there were a whole group of foreign policy experts and | :08:15. | :08:18. | |
they were all saying Flynn? Really? Are you kidding me? Do they know his | :08:19. | :08:23. | |
views and that is a conspiracy theorist? How will you temper that? | :08:24. | :08:29. | |
But he had been as you said, the first senior national security | :08:30. | :08:32. | |
person who backed him. There was loyalty. They thought alike and were | :08:33. | :08:36. | |
ideological soul mates and Trump probably thought he gave him heft. | :08:37. | :08:40. | |
But he was an insurgent, rescued from the outset and ultimately | :08:41. | :08:45. | |
proved deeply damaging and therefore the decision... The other | :08:46. | :08:49. | |
interesting thing was this morning it was being said that Donald | :08:50. | :08:56. | |
Trump... That he resigned of his own volition, but it's become clear | :08:57. | :09:00. | |
Donald Trump said you can go quietly or I push up. He was fired. He was | :09:01. | :09:07. | |
fired. The other issue is that the illustration you for 17 days and we | :09:08. | :09:11. | |
now hear that the transcripts were brought to the White House counsel | :09:12. | :09:16. | |
with all the consequences are risks that it it entailed for Flynn. Yet | :09:17. | :09:20. | |
when the president was asked about it, this was his answer. What you | :09:21. | :09:26. | |
make about the general Flynn conversations with Russians about | :09:27. | :09:33. | |
sanctions? I don't know about it. What report is that? I don't know | :09:34. | :09:41. | |
anything about it. I haven't seen that. I will look at that. He | :09:42. | :09:47. | |
doesn't offer any and so on the most important part of that question. He | :09:48. | :09:54. | |
says he's talking about the Washington Post article. That was a | :09:55. | :09:58. | |
piece of elegance footwork by Sean Spicer in the news conference. No, | :09:59. | :10:02. | |
no, President Truman knew about the issue because we've just said we've | :10:03. | :10:06. | |
been looking at it since it was brought to our attention adding | :10:07. | :10:10. | |
acted in a general three weeks ago. But Trump was saying he wasn't aware | :10:11. | :10:15. | |
of the article and his answer was solely related to the Washington | :10:16. | :10:19. | |
Post article. They are difficult questions. He does look as though he | :10:20. | :10:26. | |
was the lie that has cost Mike Flynn and his job, it is being found out. | :10:27. | :10:30. | |
It is the 11th commandment that Moses carried down on the stone | :10:31. | :10:40. | |
tablets, thou shalt not get caught. There are so many angles we need to | :10:41. | :10:41. | |
get to. Let's bring in Olga Ivshina | :10:42. | :10:42. | |
from the BBC's Russian Service. Yesterday, the spokesman for | :10:43. | :10:56. | |
President Putin denied that Michael Flynn and the Russian ambassador had | :10:57. | :11:01. | |
spoken about sanctions. And now we have Michael Flynn's resignation | :11:02. | :11:04. | |
because he has spoken about sanctions. So the Russians were not | :11:05. | :11:10. | |
telling the whole truth? Welcome to the club. They have quite a long | :11:11. | :11:16. | |
record of that. One of the most famous examples is back in 2014 when | :11:17. | :11:20. | |
the Russian president first said there is no Russian service | :11:21. | :11:23. | |
personnel in Crimea and then he said, yes, of course there were. | :11:24. | :11:26. | |
They were helping conduct the referendum. I guess that Moscow's | :11:27. | :11:33. | |
lesson is that if you are lying, remember what you are lying about | :11:34. | :11:38. | |
exactly and keep going. He refused to comment today and said it was an | :11:39. | :11:44. | |
exclusively internal matter for the United States refused to comment. | :11:45. | :11:48. | |
But he is still there, doing his business. It is interesting to note | :11:49. | :11:55. | |
that the Russian Foreign Ministry has not commented. Some Russian | :11:56. | :11:58. | |
officials and MPs ahead of the foreign committee on the upper | :11:59. | :12:03. | |
chamber commented and used the Cold War language, saying it is a | :12:04. | :12:09. | |
witchhunt, is Russian -- anti-Russian sentiment. Sean Spicer | :12:10. | :12:15. | |
just said he was the problem about the discussion about sanctions, but | :12:16. | :12:21. | |
the lack of trust. If sanctions had been imposed on November, would they | :12:22. | :12:27. | |
have retaliated? Did they retaliate in the past when sanctions were | :12:28. | :12:31. | |
introduced and why not this time? It is a good question. We don't know | :12:32. | :12:36. | |
the answer. From Mr Putin's points of view, it was quite unexpected, | :12:37. | :12:43. | |
because he usually follows a hard-core policy. This time, yes, he | :12:44. | :12:48. | |
said no, we are not retaliating or sending out diplomats. We don't know | :12:49. | :12:58. | |
what made him think so. Maybe on the other hand he is known for | :12:59. | :13:01. | |
interesting steps and he does like to get Trump cards out of his | :13:02. | :13:09. | |
sleeve. Well, now, he is probably waiting for signs from the Trump | :13:10. | :13:12. | |
administration, because at the moment, the signals which Moscow has | :13:13. | :13:18. | |
received were conflicting. Thank you. I would love to know whether | :13:19. | :13:26. | |
the Russians agree with the idea that this administration has been | :13:27. | :13:29. | |
tough on Moscow. We will return to that. | :13:30. | :13:29. | |
Let's go to Capitol Hill now and speak to Congressman Adam Kinzinger, | :13:30. | :13:32. | |
a Republican from Illinois who sits on the Foreign Affairs Committee | :13:33. | :13:35. | |
How seriously are you taking all of this from a national security point | :13:36. | :13:48. | |
of view? It is serious. I think the question of what conversations did | :13:49. | :13:52. | |
he have is important to answer, but I think general Flynn and the | :13:53. | :13:55. | |
president today did the right thing by saying you have become a | :13:56. | :13:58. | |
distraction than it is time to resign. And that is where we are at. | :13:59. | :14:04. | |
I think having discussions is an incoming ministration with the | :14:05. | :14:08. | |
future could you going to be working with is not improper in itself. | :14:09. | :14:13. | |
Weather was an proprietor is in try to talk about our ministration under | :14:14. | :14:16. | |
Barack Obama that will implement sanctions, let us talk about what | :14:17. | :14:18. | |
looks like and the next administration. I think when he lied | :14:19. | :14:23. | |
to Vice President spends about it, he went out on Sunday shows and | :14:24. | :14:27. | |
defended him and became a major distraction and he did the right | :14:28. | :14:31. | |
thing and the president did so in asking for his resignation. You | :14:32. | :14:35. | |
served to macro terms in the Iraq war as an American military service | :14:36. | :14:38. | |
member. Users in the Iraq war as an American military service member. | :14:39. | :14:40. | |
Users on the Foreign Affairs Committee and I'm agitator | :14:41. | :14:42. | |
relationship with Russia very seriously. Will you and your fellow | :14:43. | :14:47. | |
Republicans push for an investigation into what happened | :14:48. | :14:51. | |
with Michael Flynn and more generally, into the Trump team's | :14:52. | :14:58. | |
relationships with Moscow? There's the oversight committee who are | :14:59. | :15:02. | |
investigating the idea of what do Moscow do in the campaign. To the | :15:03. | :15:07. | |
extent there is relationships in the administration we even knew this. | :15:08. | :15:11. | |
Many are saying we need to call for a massive investigation. The reality | :15:12. | :15:16. | |
is, what he did was wrong. It was arguably illegal, based on this | :15:17. | :15:19. | |
Logan act which has not been enforced yet and then he resigned | :15:20. | :15:23. | |
and he is done. The question from now is, the broader issue is what is | :15:24. | :15:27. | |
this administration doing about Nato and Russia? What we have seen us | :15:28. | :15:33. | |
been solid. Mike Pence will be in Germany this week reassuring Nato | :15:34. | :15:36. | |
allies and challenging them to me that 2% commitment to GDP. Nikki | :15:37. | :15:42. | |
Haley said we will not really sanctions until you get out of | :15:43. | :15:46. | |
Crimea. Directions have been solid. Some will say we need to investigate | :15:47. | :15:50. | |
every infraction, I think that is a bridge too far. The president has | :15:51. | :15:56. | |
also said that America is no more guilty than President Putin when it | :15:57. | :15:59. | |
comes to the issue of murder. It is not true what Sean Spicer just said | :16:00. | :16:02. | |
in the White House, that the president has been tough on Russia. | :16:03. | :16:11. | |
Right. Well, look. I think the administration is being tougher now. | :16:12. | :16:16. | |
I've been critical of the somehow moral equality between the US and | :16:17. | :16:21. | |
Russia. We will be critical when those comments come out and I think | :16:22. | :16:25. | |
they are damaging. But on the broader scale of reassuring Nato and | :16:26. | :16:31. | |
the European initiative and in terms of calling for liberation of Crimea | :16:32. | :16:36. | |
and a return to the Ukrainian people, this has been very much a | :16:37. | :16:41. | |
departure for the last administration. Where there is | :16:42. | :16:44. | |
involvement we will find out, but in terms of saying we need to launch | :16:45. | :16:48. | |
major investigations every time someone resigns as it will paralyse | :16:49. | :16:51. | |
this administration from going on and doing what we need to do to | :16:52. | :16:56. | |
restore the West's role in the world. Part of a problem yesterday | :16:57. | :17:01. | |
using one story from Kelly and Conway -- Kellyanne Conway and then | :17:02. | :17:05. | |
another story from Sean Spicer and then at the end of the day, we get | :17:06. | :17:10. | |
the resignation. It looks chaotic. Like they are always on the back | :17:11. | :17:17. | |
foot. Yes, it does. And with conflicting messages, it is very | :17:18. | :17:20. | |
bad. But there is there something in mind. This is a new administration. | :17:21. | :17:25. | |
If you look at the Obama administration and the Bush | :17:26. | :17:28. | |
administration and any administration prior, there are | :17:29. | :17:31. | |
hiccups. Is an entirely new Government. 5000 new employees. | :17:32. | :17:37. | |
There will be difficulties. Right now, there are problems in the | :17:38. | :17:40. | |
national security council. My hope is now the Flynn has resigned and he | :17:41. | :17:46. | |
is a very honourable man, I disagree with him Russia, but he did a great | :17:47. | :17:50. | |
job in Iraq and Afghanistan, the now they're ministration should take a | :17:51. | :17:52. | |
deep breath and hopefully we will see that. But you keep saying that. | :17:53. | :17:59. | |
You said the distractions, many self-inflicted, could well help the | :18:00. | :18:01. | |
President's ability to move forward with a new agenda. And here we are a | :18:02. | :18:04. | |
fortnight later saying the same thing. Yes, I agree. And I would say | :18:05. | :18:13. | |
what I said there, too. But again, no matter how far we are into the | :18:14. | :18:17. | |
administration, it is still early days. I hope the communications team | :18:18. | :18:21. | |
gets together with their message and get straightened up in the process | :18:22. | :18:26. | |
and the actions we have seen and the people we see in these positions, | :18:27. | :18:29. | |
with the exception of the general Flynn, are outstanding. When the | :18:30. | :18:33. | |
message gets tied together and we get past these hiccups, either you | :18:34. | :18:38. | |
will see a very strong USA and a strong president trying to regain | :18:39. | :18:41. | |
the lesser role in the world which has been lost frankly over last | :18:42. | :18:43. | |
eight years. Thank you. Let's get more from Ellen Nakashima, | :18:44. | :18:45. | |
the National Security Reporter from the Washington Post and one | :18:46. | :18:48. | |
of the journalists who broke I wanted to ask you is something on | :18:49. | :19:02. | |
the actual phone call itself. How much do we know about what general | :19:03. | :19:07. | |
Flynn talked... Talked about with the Russian ambassador? We know that | :19:08. | :19:16. | |
the general outlines of the phone call, on about December the 29th, | :19:17. | :19:20. | |
the day the Obama administration imposed economic sanctions and the | :19:21. | :19:24. | |
punitive measures against Russia for its interference in the 2016 | :19:25. | :19:31. | |
presidential election. There was a summary of the calls and the content | :19:32. | :19:38. | |
of them prepared by the FBI and circulated along the top national | :19:39. | :19:40. | |
security officials in the Obama administration. That indicated the | :19:41. | :19:48. | |
contents and the nature of the call but not the bait in the transport -- | :19:49. | :19:54. | |
transcript. Speaking to former senior officials who have seen the | :19:55. | :20:01. | |
summary, we understand that general Flynn, while he may not have | :20:02. | :20:12. | |
given... Made it clear that he felt Russia should not overreact to the | :20:13. | :20:18. | |
sanctions imposed, because the incoming Trump administration would | :20:19. | :20:21. | |
handle it when they took over. So there was a suggestion that they | :20:22. | :20:28. | |
would somehow ease up on Moscow wants the Trump administration came | :20:29. | :20:32. | |
in. The idea is that there would have been a recording of these | :20:33. | :20:36. | |
conversations as will other Russian side and they were concerned, the | :20:37. | :20:39. | |
intelligence agencies, that if he was lying and trying to cover his | :20:40. | :20:43. | |
tracks, then he would be or could be blackmailed by the Russians at a | :20:44. | :20:48. | |
later date. He had been compromised. That's right. And not only that is, | :20:49. | :20:55. | |
but the ambassador sent a cable or a ripple back to Moscow summarising | :20:56. | :21:00. | |
the contents of the call. So they did know what was discussed and | :21:01. | :21:05. | |
other topic of sanctions came up. It was a main topic of the call, not | :21:06. | :21:08. | |
just something that came up in passing. Do we think it talks to the | :21:09. | :21:15. | |
ambassador with the authority of the best of the transition team if it | :21:16. | :21:20. | |
was the bulk of the conversation? I believe Sean Spicer said today that | :21:21. | :21:28. | |
President Trump did not direct him to make the call, but he would | :21:29. | :21:32. | |
certainly know generally the outlines of the foreign policy and | :21:33. | :21:39. | |
as you've been discussing, its friendliness towards Moscow and | :21:40. | :21:41. | |
desire to get on a good footing with the Kremlin. So whether or not he | :21:42. | :21:48. | |
did this expressly at the directional President Trump, there | :21:49. | :21:57. | |
is no evidence of that. Thank you. Fascinating. The bulk of the call | :21:58. | :22:02. | |
was the issue of sanctions, and it's hard to see how general Flynn could | :22:03. | :22:03. | |
forgotten that. Some of the day's other key | :22:04. | :22:04. | |
developments: The UK Government has rejected a petition calling | :22:05. | :22:07. | |
for Donald Trump's state visit It said it recognised the "strong | :22:08. | :22:11. | |
views" expressed, but looked forward More than 1.8 million people | :22:12. | :22:15. | |
signed the petition, which said a state visit would cause | :22:16. | :22:18. | |
"embarrassment" to the Queen. A counter-petition calling | :22:19. | :22:21. | |
for the visit to go ahead attracted The European Union's Brexit | :22:22. | :22:23. | |
Negotiator has called for profound reform of the organisation, | :22:24. | :22:27. | |
saying it always delivers Guy Verhofstadt, who used to be | :22:28. | :22:29. | |
Prime Minister of Belgium, said the union had failed to tackle | :22:30. | :22:35. | |
issues, including the migrant crisis He also said Brexit, | :22:36. | :22:38. | |
Presidents Trump and Putin Around 200,000 people living close | :22:39. | :22:41. | |
to America's tallest dam have been told it's still not | :22:42. | :22:52. | |
safe for them to return home. The area around the Oroville Dam | :22:53. | :22:56. | |
in northern California was evacuated after a hole was found | :22:57. | :22:58. | |
in one of its emergency overflow channels, prompting fears | :22:59. | :23:01. | |
that it could collapse. Authorities have managed | :23:02. | :23:03. | |
to lower the water levels, but they don't know how long it | :23:04. | :23:04. | |
will be before residents The half-brother of the North Korean | :23:05. | :23:07. | |
leader Kim Jong-un is reported to have been killed | :23:08. | :23:12. | |
with poison in Malaysia. South Korean media sources say | :23:13. | :23:13. | |
Kim Jong-nam, who was 45, was targeted at the airport | :23:14. | :23:16. | |
in the capital, Kuala Lumpur. The late Kim Jong-Il's eldest son | :23:17. | :23:18. | |
is thought to have fled North Korea after being passed over | :23:19. | :23:21. | |
for the leadership. I guess general Flynn got it easy, | :23:22. | :23:38. | |
right? Yes, they were differently in other countries. | :23:39. | :23:39. | |
Let's take a quick look at one of the President's tweets the two | :23:40. | :23:42. | |
of us had been talking about before we came on air. | :23:43. | :23:44. | |
"The real story here is why are there so many illegal leaks | :23:45. | :23:47. | |
"Will these leaks be happening as I deal on N.Korea etc?" | :23:48. | :23:56. | |
It got me thinking. You can come to Washington as a disrupter and | :23:57. | :24:01. | |
threaten to pull down the establishment and go on the | :24:02. | :24:05. | |
offensive with the intelligence agency, but at some point, it come | :24:06. | :24:12. | |
back to bite you. Interesting. Sean Spicer also raised this issue of the | :24:13. | :24:16. | |
leaks as the president is concerned about it. What happens if he's on a | :24:17. | :24:20. | |
major call with a foreign leader and that is leaked? This is a question | :24:21. | :24:25. | |
of loyalty. There are people in the President's inner circle who are | :24:26. | :24:27. | |
prepared to talk to journalists when they feel things are not going as | :24:28. | :24:31. | |
they should or that there is a story they want to get out there. If your | :24:32. | :24:36. | |
team is loyal, they do not leak. Someone, somewhere in the White | :24:37. | :24:49. | |
House feels they have more to gain by giving the story is out. There is | :24:50. | :24:51. | |
also the issue of friends. You attack everybody and general Flynn | :24:52. | :24:53. | |
attack the intelligence agencies, the president has also done that, if | :24:54. | :24:56. | |
you like that with everybody, at some point, you have no friends. And | :24:57. | :24:59. | |
in this time, if you take on the intelligence agencies, they will | :25:00. | :25:01. | |
come back to bite you. That is what we have seen in the Flynn story. | :25:02. | :25:07. | |
Lots going on an investigation is still pending into those leaks. Sean | :25:08. | :25:11. | |
Spicer saying he was very, very worried about the leaks. | :25:12. | :25:12. | |
You're watching One Hundred Days, from BBC News. | :25:13. | :25:18. | |
Still to come for viewers on the BBC News Channel and BBC World News - | :25:19. | :25:22. | |
is America's relationship with Nato up in the air and was Donald Trump | :25:23. | :25:25. | |
right to criticise fellow members for not paying their share? | :25:26. | :25:30. | |
We'll speak to the former secretary-general to find out. | :25:31. | :25:32. | |
And the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu | :25:33. | :25:34. | |
peace process have now with Donald Trump | :25:35. | :25:40. | |
That's still to come on 100 Days, from BBC News. | :25:41. | :26:13. | |
It is milder this week. A bit of rain around. Various cloud coming in | :26:14. | :26:21. | |
off the Atlantic. No great amounts. One area of cloud will produce some | :26:22. | :26:26. | |
drinks and drugs moving south to north overnight tonight. Many places | :26:27. | :26:31. | |
of avoiding that. It will be a murky night with fog, too. More rain in | :26:32. | :26:37. | |
the far south-west by the end of the night. Not particularly cold. 5-7d | :26:38. | :26:43. | |
typical first thing in the morning. Wet across parts of Cornwall. Rain | :26:44. | :26:48. | |
pushing it a Somerset, Wiltshire, south-western parts of Wales at 8am | :26:49. | :26:55. | |
tomorrow. Further east and north, it will be a slow start. Grey and | :26:56. | :27:01. | |
misty. Not dreadfully cold. None of the fog will be too widespread | :27:02. | :27:06. | |
audience. Shari bursts in Northern Ireland. Scotland looking dry. The | :27:07. | :27:11. | |
best of the sunshine as we go through the day on Wednesday. | :27:12. | :27:16. | |
Elsewhere, the struggle to brighten things up for some of us. The rain | :27:17. | :27:23. | |
pushes northwards. Some places seeing sharp bursts, others not | :27:24. | :27:28. | |
much. But in the south-western parts of Scotland, something a bit | :27:29. | :27:32. | |
brighter following. A milder one and double figures in a few spots. That | :27:33. | :27:38. | |
feature wanders away and we look to the north for low pressure and some | :27:39. | :27:42. | |
blustery showers as we get into Thursday, particularly for Scotland, | :27:43. | :27:46. | |
Northern Ireland and the far north of England. Further south, things | :27:47. | :27:51. | |
settle down. Nice on Thursday. Mr and fog first thing. Sunshine also. | :27:52. | :27:58. | |
Temperature is doing pretty well Friday, high pressure. Normally | :27:59. | :28:09. | |
means dry. Could be faulty. -- could be faulty. | :28:10. | :28:17. | |
The best of the sun in the East. Thickening cloud and increasing wind | :28:18. | :28:26. | |
and rain knocking on the door of the West. | :28:27. | :30:05. | |
Just three weeks into the new US administration and already | :30:06. | :30:08. | |
the President has had to sack some one. | :30:09. | :30:11. | |
The National Security Adviser, Mike Flynn did speak to the Russian | :30:12. | :30:14. | |
And later with-held that information from the Vice President. | :30:15. | :30:22. | |
The evolving and erroding level of trust as a result of this | :30:23. | :30:25. | |
situation and a series of other questionable instances is what led | :30:26. | :30:28. | |
the president to ask for General Flynn's resignation. | :30:29. | :30:35. | |
And we speak to the former NATO chief about the future | :30:36. | :30:37. | |
of the alliance and if Donald Trump is right to demand more money | :30:38. | :30:41. | |
The principle of collective defence is the very heart | :30:42. | :30:54. | |
It binds the 28 members together, an attack against one ally | :30:55. | :30:58. | |
is considered an attack against all allies. | :30:59. | :31:02. | |
But does that solidarity still exist? | :31:03. | :31:04. | |
On the campaign trail Donald Trump didn't sound all that convincing. | :31:05. | :31:09. | |
That makes America's NATO allies nervous - | :31:10. | :31:10. | |
as does Mr Trump's warmer relationship with Moscow. | :31:11. | :31:14. | |
Appeasement might bring some short term stability but what about | :31:15. | :31:17. | |
Here's a tweet from the former NATO secretary general | :31:18. | :31:22. | |
"Giving up #Russia sanctions unconditionally will embolden #Putin | :31:23. | :31:36. | |
and undermine security of Europe #dontbetrayukraine @POTUS | :31:37. | :31:37. | |
And I am pleased to say Mr Rasmussen joins us from Copenhagen. | :31:38. | :31:45. | |
The me ask about the events today. Does it worry you that even in | :31:46. | :31:52. | |
transition, Michael Flynn was soft-pedalling on Russia are | :31:53. | :31:54. | |
reassuring the ambassador to Washington that Donald Trump would | :31:55. | :32:02. | |
perhaps go soft on sanctions? Well, first of all, I would like to thank | :32:03. | :32:08. | |
Michael Flynn for his service, many years of service to his country, but | :32:09. | :32:13. | |
obviously, this conversation raises a lot of questions about the Trump | :32:14. | :32:25. | |
Administration is with Russia and taking into account Mr Trump's | :32:26. | :32:32. | |
statements during the campaign and this has raised a lot of concerns in | :32:33. | :32:39. | |
Europe. Back in January, you said that you had been encouraged by the | :32:40. | :32:45. | |
Trump transition team and you felt it was an administration that was | :32:46. | :32:50. | |
going to be more pragmatic when it came to issues like Nato and Russia, | :32:51. | :32:57. | |
do you still feel that way? Yes, absolutely. I think Mr Trump has | :32:58. | :33:01. | |
appointed some very good people in the security team. The Secretary of | :33:02. | :33:12. | |
State of the secretary of defence, also the CIA director, all of them | :33:13. | :33:22. | |
have made very reassuring statements on the US commitment to collective | :33:23. | :33:28. | |
defence. Based on that, I am confident that when Nato will have a | :33:29. | :33:33. | |
summit in May, it will be a summit that will send a very clear message | :33:34. | :33:41. | |
to who is a concern, that the article five commitment, the | :33:42. | :33:45. | |
commitment to defend all allies, is strong and unchanged. It is | :33:46. | :33:51. | |
important that, because I am just reading here, are breaking news | :33:52. | :33:55. | |
Lang, the Russian military aircraft came close to the US destroyer last | :33:56. | :34:03. | |
week. The aircraft overflying a US warship, they feel emboldened in the | :34:04. | :34:07. | |
east of Ukraine and in the east of Europe and it is important that Mr | :34:08. | :34:14. | |
Trump stands behind Nato. Yes, absolutely. It is important that any | :34:15. | :34:25. | |
doubts after their statement that Nato is obsolete, that any doubts | :34:26. | :34:29. | |
are eradicated and I think that should be the main purpose about the | :34:30. | :34:37. | |
upcoming Nato summit, to send two messages, firstly our commitment for | :34:38. | :34:43. | |
collective defence is unchanged and secondly, the Allies, the 28 allies, | :34:44. | :34:52. | |
seal committed to increasing defence investment. Let's talk about that. | :34:53. | :34:55. | |
to you which I'm sure you're aware of - but for the benefit | :34:56. | :35:01. | |
of our viewers, Nato members have agreed to spend 2% or more | :35:02. | :35:04. | |
of their GDP on defence by 2024 - and these countries do: the UK, | :35:05. | :35:07. | |
Estonia, Poland, Greece and of course, the US. | :35:08. | :35:09. | |
However of the 28 Nato members, 23 don't spend as much | :35:10. | :35:12. | |
on defence as they should - and there are a few surprises... | :35:13. | :35:15. | |
Most notably, France, Germany and Canada - | :35:16. | :35:16. | |
among the world's biggest economies and all in the G8. | :35:17. | :35:25. | |
You are sounding confident about Donald Trump's commitment to Nato | :35:26. | :35:29. | |
but you know and we have spoken about this before and during the | :35:30. | :35:36. | |
course of this campaign, he tied commitment to article five, two | :35:37. | :35:41. | |
countries spending that 2% of GDP on defence spending. This suggests that | :35:42. | :35:44. | |
if they did not, he was not going to stand by article five. In I fully | :35:45. | :35:54. | |
agree that European allies should invest much more in defence and it | :35:55. | :36:01. | |
is embarrassing for the Alliance Toad in the Hole that's not the | :36:02. | :36:05. | |
question. The question is does article five depend on them spending | :36:06. | :36:13. | |
that money? No. That's important to send a very clear message to | :36:14. | :36:19. | |
Vladimir Putin and who it may concern, that the commitment to | :36:20. | :36:22. | |
collective defence is unconditional. It cannot be made conditional on | :36:23. | :36:27. | |
financial contributions but having said that, in Wales, in 2014, Nato | :36:28. | :36:36. | |
had a summit, in which we decided that within the next decade, all 28 | :36:37. | :36:43. | |
allies will live up to the 2% defence investment and I think, we | :36:44. | :36:48. | |
should speed up that process, taking into account the new security | :36:49. | :36:53. | |
situation in Europe. Can I take you back to Michael Flynn? From what | :36:54. | :36:57. | |
Sean Spicer has been saying in the last hour or so, we cannot rule out | :36:58. | :37:01. | |
that he was acting with the knowledge of others in the | :37:02. | :37:04. | |
transition team when he was talking about sanctions and going soft on | :37:05. | :37:10. | |
sanctions. Do you hope that this sends a warning signal to the | :37:11. | :37:13. | |
administration that it might just change its tune on Russia? Yes. In | :37:14. | :37:22. | |
my opinion, sanctions should be maintained. As a pressure on Russia, | :37:23. | :37:31. | |
as long as Russia does not fulfil its commitment within the so-called | :37:32. | :37:38. | |
Minsk agreements and as long as Russia continues to destabilise the | :37:39. | :37:43. | |
situation in the east of Ukraine, we should maintain sanctions, if | :37:44. | :37:48. | |
sanctions were lifted, we would lose the only possibility to put pressure | :37:49. | :37:52. | |
on Russia that we do have. And I feel confident that if the President | :37:53. | :38:04. | |
intends to lift the sanctions, then the US Congress would pass | :38:05. | :38:07. | |
legislation that would maintain the pressure on Russia via sanctions. | :38:08. | :38:13. | |
Thank you very much for joining us from Copenhagen. | :38:14. | :38:14. | |
Let's turn our attention to the Middle East now and it's | :38:15. | :38:17. | |
clearly on President Trump's agenda this week. | :38:18. | :38:19. | |
He's due to host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu | :38:20. | :38:21. | |
So, we thought we'd ask our Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen, | :38:22. | :38:25. | |
to share his thoughts on the relationship of the two | :38:26. | :38:27. | |
allies - and in particular, the contentious issue of Israeli | :38:28. | :38:30. | |
The people who own this house have all sorts of problems because of | :38:31. | :38:42. | |
where it is. That way there is Jerusalem and that way there is a | :38:43. | :38:47. | |
Jewish settlement and over that way, on the other side of that wall, part | :38:48. | :38:53. | |
of Israel's so-called separation barrier, is a Palestinian town of | :38:54. | :39:00. | |
Bethlehem. All these problems, 20 or 25 years ago, were supposed to be | :39:01. | :39:04. | |
sorted out by the so-called peace process. But there were years of | :39:05. | :39:11. | |
negotiations and they all failed. So the question is will Donald Trump in | :39:12. | :39:13. | |
the White House change things? Will he make a difference? He is an | :39:14. | :39:17. | |
unpredictable man and the comments he made when he was running for | :39:18. | :39:23. | |
office suggested that he would be a big supporter of the Israeli right | :39:24. | :39:28. | |
and in Israeli political terms, right wing it means people who | :39:29. | :39:33. | |
support hanging on to some or all of the territory that was captured by | :39:34. | :39:38. | |
Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, 50 years ago. Since then, since he | :39:39. | :39:43. | |
entered the Oval Office he has changed his tune a little bit. He is | :39:44. | :39:49. | |
showing signs that what he wants to be is the big deal maker and that is | :39:50. | :39:54. | |
how he sees himself. He says that a deal between Israelis and | :39:55. | :39:56. | |
Palestinians as possible and it would take concessions by both | :39:57. | :40:02. | |
sides. That is the deal that evaded all his predecessors and so, he | :40:03. | :40:07. | |
might see himself, Donald Trump, President Donald Trump, the | :40:08. | :40:09. | |
deal-maker as the only man who can do it. We might have clear | :40:10. | :40:16. | |
indications of what is happening after President Trump meets Binjamin | :40:17. | :40:19. | |
Netanyahu in Washington. When they talk, it could be that they spend | :40:20. | :40:24. | |
much more time talking not about this place, but about Iran. Both of | :40:25. | :40:29. | |
them have said that Iran is a big threat to peace in the Middle East | :40:30. | :40:33. | |
and a big cause of war. It could be that that is the area they will | :40:34. | :40:36. | |
concentrate on and that is the area they will talk about most. We will | :40:37. | :40:42. | |
see. Jeremy Bowen report Imer and news coming in from the White House. | :40:43. | :40:46. | |
We will get a press conference after that meeting between Binjamin | :40:47. | :40:49. | |
Netanyahu and President Trump and I am willing to bet that another issue | :40:50. | :40:54. | |
of personnel is going to come up because this is just coming into us, | :40:55. | :40:59. | |
that the office of government ethics has sent a letter to the White House | :41:00. | :41:05. | |
saying that it will investigate Kelly Anne Conway, do you remember, | :41:06. | :41:16. | |
she said about Nordstrom, people should not buy the clothes after it | :41:17. | :41:19. | |
was dropped. They have said it is a clear breach. She has -- here is | :41:20. | :41:27. | |
another personnel issue. It is this feeling that Donald Trump is | :41:28. | :41:32. | |
constantly firefighting. They are still to fill key posts at the White | :41:33. | :41:38. | |
House, including medication 's director, scores of embassies are | :41:39. | :41:41. | |
still waiting for their ambassador, it is all looking as though they are | :41:42. | :41:45. | |
putting out fires and they cannot concentrate on what matters. That is | :41:46. | :41:50. | |
the problem. They have got to fill these positions, it is not just that | :41:51. | :41:56. | |
they -- there is personnel mis-management. We will see whether | :41:57. | :42:00. | |
this ethics office investigation leads to. He has to fill these | :42:01. | :42:04. | |
posts. It is like trying to run a company but you do not have the CFO, | :42:05. | :42:10. | |
he has to get those people into position. We will see what we get | :42:11. | :42:16. | |
tomorrow at the press conference. That will be quite an important | :42:17. | :42:20. | |
relationship. They have talked about moving the embassy to Jerusalem. He | :42:21. | :42:25. | |
did not have a particularly good relationship with President Obama. | :42:26. | :42:29. | |
The Israelis are hoping that this will be a better relationship, but I | :42:30. | :42:34. | |
think there will be some wariness because President Trump has rowed | :42:35. | :42:38. | |
back on the Israeli settlements and warned him about them. Just one of | :42:39. | :42:42. | |
the foreign policy issues Iran, China and Israel, he has already | :42:43. | :42:47. | |
gone back on it. He is getting a dose of diplomatic reality. That is | :42:48. | :42:51. | |
all from us for today. We will be back at the same time tomorrow and | :42:52. | :42:55. | |
meanwhile you can follow us on social media. Goodbye for now. | :42:56. | :43:00. |